In the last year I've managed to blow out two struts on my Tracker, both times on the passenger side. Now I don't baby my rig, but I don't abuse it either. No jumping or such, but sometimes I do some pretty quick rally type driving, as well as crawling and general trailing. I know I've bottomed out a few times, and topped out a few times as well. What I'm curious about is why only the passenger side? Coincidence?
My suspension is quite modified in the front, Hagen widening, Calmini coils with 1" spacers, modified spring pads on the control arms, OME struts with strut mount flip. Drivers side and pass side are exactly the same. I have a couple in. of droop when lifted off the ground.
The Strut always breaks the same way: the piston or guide inside the strut body becomes loose or breaks, all the gas leaks out, and the shaft is left to wobble about causing all kind of susp and steering issues. This is getting expensive to say the least, aggravating as well.
Looking for ideas as to why it does this, and yeah I know, SAS would eliminate all these problems , not ready to go there yet. I am getting to the point of getting rid of this thing and getting a Toy though. Any ideas appreciated.

OME struts

Underneath the yellow paint it says 'Made in Spain' - Spanish stuff isn't renowned for its durability. Are the bump stops still fitted? with only a strut mount flip the strut shouldn't ever bottom out.

Bump stops still fitted. Made in Spain huh? So much for " built tough for the Australian Outback." They really mean, " built in Spain, for world use." I guess it's just a coincidence they both broke on the pass side.

Have you called OME about this?  It would be interesting to see what their take is on it...

Have you tried suggesting that your passenger maybe lighten up on the bonbons and Moon Pies a little?

I've seen his passenger and she's definitely not the problem!!!

Thanks LilRed, Yeah Rita's a lightweight. Funny Drone, you need to meet my wife. I think I figured out the problem. The strut is actually TOPPING out over some bumps, the kind where the wheel drops into a hole or depression. The problem only occurs when I'm really hauling butt through the forest trails, and it's only happened when I was alone in the rig. If I go that fast with Rita in it It makes too much noise ( her yelling! ) I think my 220+ lbs is just enough to keep weight on the drivers side from letting that side extend too fast? Just a theory. I did talk to a rep at ARB, and he pretty much said the OME strut will break the inner piston if topped out hard.  So, while I'm waiting on my replacement struts, I need to figure out a limiting strap setup for the front, and good mounting points for it. There's tons of straps available relatively cheap, but mounting them is gonna take some thinking. Any Ideas?  I know they should be mounted verticly as close to the center line of the strut as possible, but with the coils and knuckle it's going to be a comprimise.

I'm looking for a mounting point for the upper point of the strap, and I'm wondering if the strut tower shell would be strong enough if I welded a bracket to it . The top bolt of the strut would be the lower mounting point.
Hey Drone, sorry for the mixup, I meant BEERCHECK! 

I was going to say...  Don't want to be getting a bad rep for no reason... 

What about running a limiting strap along side the strut itself?  Just put an ear on one of the lower mounts and one coming off of the top mount?  It would also keep it out of the way from getting tangled up in the spring.

One would think that the struts having bi-directional valving would be enough to stop that from being an issue though...

Yeah Drone , I just measured everything. Check this out: The OME strut has 7.65 " of extension at full out. I measured the drivers side while still mounted, and sure enough, it measures 7.5" at rest. I know I've probably got a bit too much lift in there, and the topping out is probably caused by too much extention, too fast. I've already done a strut mount flip, and I don't want to extend them anymore without a limiting strap. My CV angles are pretty good, so I don't want it drooping anymore. I'm going to check into some strut mount extensions too, then limit them with the strap. I'll use the upper mounting bolt on the strut, and reinforce the front edge of the strut tower and mount the upper there. The strap will be parrellel with the strut that way. Where would you mount an ear on top? I couldn't see a way to tie into the upper mount. 

I would just take a thin piece of meta, unbolt the strut, and put it in between the strut and the body.  You could throw a washer on the other 2 strut mount bolts to even it out.  If you want to get real fancy you could actually make a ring out of 1/8" or something similar that fit over all 3 nodes and had a place to attach your strap hanging out to the side.  Or even build it into your strut mount extension.

Hmmmmm, now ya got me thinking, and that's dangerous!

I might be highjacking the thread with this, but I also had the same thing happen w/ my pass. side OME strut on my 99 twice within about the same time frame.  I think the last time was due to a very washboarded section of road in Death Valley that threw the Tracker all over.  Against my better off-roading judgement, I'll be re-attaching my front sway bay to limit the suspension travel somewhat because, like you said those OME's aren't cheap to replace.  Fortunately, this time I had a spare.  Next time, however, I'm going to buy some of the strut spacers Jeff started making for the Gen II's, and just throw on some cheap Monroe's from AutoZone w/  a lifetime warranty.  In the long run AutoZone will probably end up losing money on that deal.

All of that aside, does anyone know of a longer strut with an application for another vehicle that will bolt up to Tracker/Sidekick/Vitaras.  I think the rear Crown Vic shock swap is pretty common knowledge to anyone who's spent five minutes researching suspension on this board.  I was just wondering if there's a similar cheap cheat for the front that I hadn't read about in my last few years on here.  Probably not, since I've never seen anything; just curious.

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread 'cause I've dune-ran my tracker before... but not blown a strut yet. I <3 washboards, so I want to make sure I keep 'em alive.

So far I've mounted a set of Jeff's strut spacers, and returned the upper mount to it's original position. Jeff's spacers are well made btw, the same quality as his coil spacers. The Tracker is still up on jacks at this point, so I'm sot sure about the stroke travel until I get it on the ground, coils compressed a bit, and get the alignment straightened out. I can't really get a handle on the limit strap until I see where the ride height is on the strut.  Stay tuned.